By day, it is a city of heartbeats and life, a place where work is done, where games are played, where regular lives are lived.

When night comes, it becomes, in some places, a city of fear.

Now, in the aftermath of the triple murder two weeks ago at Mount Vernon School, there has been talk that "the community" may galvanize against violence.

"There's a lot of talk, but after all the talk, the sun still goes down," said Yusef Shabazz, a 20-year-old filmmaker who started an anti-gang initiative last year. "Then, anything can happen anywhere."

The truth about Newark is that there are many more people in the light than the shadows, and many have been there for a long time.

And while "the community" may agree it wants safe streets, some disagree on how to get there. Some say Jesus, some say Allah, some say through Corporate Newark, some say through Black Nationalism, some say job training, some say free food, some say sports, some want more arts and culture. Mayor Cory Booker's great challenge in the coming months will be how to get all those well-meaning people to shine their light into the city's corners.

In the light, there is optimism, and a spirit of cooperation.

At a daytime block party and cookout outside the West Ward's Renaissance Community Development Center on Saturday, girls skipped Double Dutch, and little kids jumped in an inflatable castle, men sat and talked, and women rummaged through racks of clothing outside the center's thrift shop.

"Up to now, it's been my church, my church, my church, or my group, my group, my group," said the Rev. E.L. Brown of the Newark Gospel Tabernacle Church. "We need to become selfless and see that it's all about the community of Newark in the Kingdom of God."

At the Brick City Basketball Tournament at Jesse Allen Park in the Central Ward, teams of kids from all over the city in different color "Future Leaders of Tomorrow" T-shirts played in games with referees and scoreboards, and the colors they wore weren't only red or blue. Fans sat on the concrete walls and the rotting wooden climbing structures around the court.

"This is like a truce area," said Gerard Drinkard, an organizer. "We get kids in from different areas and hope that maybe they'll get used to seeing each other. Maybe, hopefully, then they'll think twice about killing someone later on if they start running with a gang. Maybe they'll think, 'Oh, I used to play basketball with that guy.'"

Future Leaders first organized in 2003 with a march against violence and teamed with the Newark Housing Authority to start the weekly basketball tournaments, which include talk sessions on living right.

"We started out with 36 kids. Now we have 300. Organizations like us have to keep going," said Larry Jones, an organizer of Future Leaders. "It's hard, but what's the alternative?"

At Saturday's tournament, a guest speaker was Bashir Akinyele of the New Black Panther Party, who handed out fliers for a morning anti-violence rally next Wednesday in front of City Hall.

The list of participants includes Baptist churches and Nation of Islam mosques, political allies and enemies of Booker, and dozens of anti-violence groups from Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters (Momsad) to Morticians That Care.

At the Renaissance block party, Pastor Thomas Reddick Jr., and West Ward Councilman Ron Rice also spoke of cooperative efforts. Rice has been building a model for a West Ward Collective to better organize grassroots efforts aimed at improving life in the ward.

"It's a simple model to bring good, well-intentioned people together at the ward level," Rice said. "If someone wants to start an arts or cultural group, or a sports team, or do some job training, we connect them with people who are already doing it.

One Rice-Reddick cooperative is the West Ward Brothers Club, which encourages stable, successful men to mentor kids or young men in trouble.

"We have to be one-minded on this," Reddick said. "It's about 'us,' not 'I's.'"

Late that night, well after the block party ended, Sammy Morris sat in his wheelchair outside a liquor store across from Renaissance "hustling" people for a dollar. He could be a mentor, he said.

"We all want to be part of something. But it's really, really rough out here. It don't get no rougher," said Morris, who was stabbed in the spine after he was robbed by two men. "I lived on these streets and I could tell these boys something, but I want to be paid for my time. There should be some money out there."

Along came Shabazz, then Kevin Bethea, a social worker who did 15 years in prison for running a car theft ring. His son, Khalil Bethea, was shot and killed five months ago on 3rd Street.

"I believe there's hope because this is a great city," Bethea said. "People don't realize how blessed they are. They seem lost out here, just going from one day to the next."

At Jesse Allen Park after dark, the dimly lit basketball courts were all but deserted.

Derek Montgomery, 36, standing with a few friends in an apartment complex parking lot overlooking the park, pointed to a bunch of young kids playing in the small courtyard.

"When we were growing up, we'd hang in the parks all night. Now they're too scared," he said.

Hector Mendez, 20, who was visiting relatives near the park, said his aunts and cousins who live there were scared at night as cars raced up Muhammad Ali Avenue from the deserted housing projects on Barclay Street, past the new townhouses on Prince.

"A lot of bad things go on. Crazy stuff. Shots. Nothing's going to change. People are going to be people and Newark is going to be Newark."